Worrals of the Islands/plot
Chapter I: A Sign From the Past Squadron Leader Marcus Yorke asks Worrals if she knows someone in a tattered photograph. She recognises Julia Carson, a W.A.A.F. officer who attended the same training course as her and Frecks. Julia was believed killed in Singapore when it fell to the Japanese. Yorke has surprising news for Worrals and Frecks. Julia is believed to have escaped from Singapore with eight other British servicewomen on board a sailing boat and is probably wrecked on one of the many islands in the Indonesian archipelago. The girls had sent out a message punched on a tin can lid, and a more detailed note written on the back of the photo. The messages had been found on a dead native islander on a canoe. Unfortunately the photo had been badly damaged. The only clue was that the girls were on an island south east of Singapore. A search had been conducted but nothing had been found. Worrals persuades the authorities to let her and Frecks try. Chapter II: Meet Billy Maguire Worrals and Frecks arrive in Darwin, Australia. Worrals realises they can save time and fuel if they have an advance base among the islands in their search area. Dan Lynch, their Australian liaison officer, suggests they ask a island trader named Billy Maguire who knows the waters well. He recommends Ingles island, an atoll, shaped like a pair of boxing gloves, comprising two islets linked by a sandy causeway. The lagoon provided a good anchorage, and there is freshwater. Chapter III: Ingles Island Worrals and Frecks arrive at Ingles Island on board their Scud amphibian and set up base there. The rest of the chapter comprises scene setting description of the wildlife, including sharks, crabs and inevitably, crocodiles. Chapter IV: "One Aircraft Failed to Return" Worrals and Frecks begin searching the islands sector by sector. On one island they pick up Corporal Harry Timms, a Beaufighter gunner whose aircraft had been shot down. He tells them a few months ago he had met two native islanders. They drew in the sand nine stick figures with mops on their heads and an arrow pointing northwest. Could they have been meaning nine girls? Chapter V: A Visit and a Visitor A damaged Japanese floatplane approaches Ingles Island and makes a forced landing. The three crewmen get out and unfortunately see the Scud and campsite. They mustn't get away! A gun battle ensues. Worrals shoots one and Harry shoots a second and also sinks the floatplane with a Sten gun. Unfortunately, the third runs off into the mangroves on the other islet. They hear a scream. Perhaps a wild animal got him? Chapter VI: Worrals Takes a Chance The next day, Worrals decides to try a different tactic. She lands at an inhabited island to speak to the villagers. There is a man named Oko who can speak some pidgin English. By chance, Harry also spots the two islanders he had met. Unfortunately Oko could only speak and translate their language imperfectly. With patient questioning, Worrals learns that most of the islanders knew there were nine "Marys" (English women) on an island. No one knew which island. But, Oko added, on Maital there was a Sikh policeman, also a refugee from Singapore. He could speak English and may know more. Worrals decides she must follow this lead. Oko refuses to fly in a plane, so she goes with him by canoe to Maital. She tells Frecks and Harry to pick her up in two days time. Chapter VII: What Happened at Maital The Sikh policeman, Rama Pindra tells Worrals he had heard of the nine British girls. Their boat had been ahead of his all the way through Sumatra, Java and then Bali. Later he heard that their boat had been wrecked and stranded on an island. But there had been too much talk among the islanders of these girls. The Japanese had also heard about them. On the up side, the Japanese were still searching for them, which meant they had not been captured yet. But now disaster! Japanese sailors land and begin a massacre of the Maital villagers. Rama tells Worrals the troops come from the Tamaroa, a patrol boat belonging to the local Japanese commander of the islands, one General Prince Samurai. Oko is dead but Worrals had taken note of the landmarks as they traveled so she decides to take the canoe back to Oko's island. There is no other way of meeting up with Frecks. Rama insists on accompanying her to help. Unfortunately, as they put out to sea, they are spotted by the Tamaroa. Chapter VIII: A Stab in the Back Frecks and Harry fly back to Ingles island. There is a column of smoke. Someone has sabotaged their stores! Harry spots a figure and shots him from the gun turret. It turns out to be the third crewman from the Japanese floatplane who had escaped into the mangroves. Without fuel, Frecks cannot fetch Worrals. But Harry remembers that his Beaufighter did not burn: there may be fuel left in it! The Scud has just enough fuel to get to Harry's island. There's enough fuel to collect Worrals and fly back to Darwin. But first they have to spend a tense night: the Tamaroa has shown up and anchored nearby. They must hope nobody decides to come ashore. Chapter IX: Frecks Has a Busy Day The next morning, the Tamaroa departs. Frecks taxys the Scud out and spots the rubbish trail of the gunboat. There's something floating there and Frecks picks it up: it's a hat of the Queen Alexandra's Nursing Service with the name Pamela Deacon on it. One of the nine! If she is on the boat, the others could be also. Frecks must find Worrals quickly! They head for Oko's island and then Maital. Frecks spots the Tamaroa closing in on a canoe. Desperate, she dives the aircraft straight for the canoe and executes a hasty landing next to it. The gunboat is closing in and firing but Worrals and Rama get on board and they manage to take off unscathed. Chapter X: Into Action Worrals decides they must track the Tamaroa and somehow get in contact or try to rescue Pamela Deacon. Harry sends a radio message to Darwin asking for more supplies. He also receives a message advising them to return to Australia. The "wet" is forecasted to arrive two weeks early! They find the Tamaroa anchored on one side of a long island. Worrals glides in and executes a silent landing on the far side. As night falls, they set off across the island, aiming to get to the Tamaroa. Chapters XI: Worrals Takes a Prisoner The journey across the island is tedious and takes longer than Worrals expected. It is almost daybreak by the time they get across, and the Tamaroa is gone! Have they failed? But suddenly they hear gunfire nearby. Getting nearer, they find signs of another massacre. Some Japanese sailors are holding on to two men and a senior officer is getting ready to behead them with his sword. Worrals orders the team to attack. Total surprise is achieved and most of the sailors are cut down or flee in terror. Worrals captures the senior officer who turns out to be General the Prince Samurai. She orders him to have Pamela Deacon brought ashore. The two men about to be executed were Dutch planters, Jan Vandergroot and Uleef, refugees from Java. They and Pamela join Worrals and the rest on the trek back across the island to the Scud. Worrals brings the General half way as a hostage. Chapter XII: Pam Tells Her Tale On the flight back to Ingles Island, they are intercepted by a Zero fighter but Harry manages to shoot it down. Pam tells she cannot be sure of the position of the island where the rest of the girls are but it lay nearby, perhaps a hundred miles away. They had been staying on it for months or perhaps a year. They had met an islander and persuaded him to carry a message to Australia. When nothing happened, and another, battered canoe washed up, they fixed it and chose Pam, the best swimmer to paddle out to try to make contact with some islanders on a neighbouring island. Halfway on her journey, she had been sighted by the Tamaroa and captured. Pam could remember that the Tamaroa headed slightly north of west after picking her up. They need to move fast as Worrals expects that the Japanese will intensify their activity now that they know her team was in the area. She decides to give everyone a two hour rest before setting out to find the remaining girls. During the interval, a Supermarine Walrus carrying their fuel and supplies approaches Ingles Island but is shot down by a Zero. Worrals and Frecks take off and rescue the pilot, Jimmy Crane. Chapter XIII: High Speed Sortie Worrals, Frecks, Pam and Harry take off again. They soon spot the Tamaroa but then Pam sees her atoll. In fact the Tamaroa is heading for it! The shortest distance is a straight line, so Worrals puts the nose of the Scud down for extra speed and boldly flies over the ship towards the atoll. They manage to avoid the flak and overtake the ship and get to the atoll first. Worrals decides the best plan is to land on the beach on the far side of the atoll. To get there, the Tamaroa would have to round the atoll and that would take it several minutes. Once down. Pam goes out to fetch the girls which Frecks is sent to a vantage point to watch for the Tamaroa. She comes running back with bad news: the ship is lowering a boat with a landing party. This saves it the time of having to round the atoll and sailing into the lagoon. The boat must not be allowed to land! Worrals takes off again and shoots up the boat with her forward 20 mm cannons. The flak from the Tamaroa hits the Scud's gun turret, slightly injuring Harry. In a moment of anger, Worrals decides to hit back. She turns the Scub and attacks the gunboat, setting it on fire. They pick up the girls and head for Ingles Island, landing just as the first gale of the monsoon strikes. Chapter XIV: Visibility Zero They hastily tie down the aircraft and ride out the storm. The next day, amidst poor visibility, they hear an aircraft approaching. It's probably their fuel and supplies! Worral fires a flare but disappointingly, the pilot cannot spot them in the weather and turns back. Another plane approaches and she fires a second flare and then realises it's a Mitsubishi bomber and it has spotted them! Now a grey shape in the murk is entering the lagoon. Could it be the Tamaroa? They prepare for a last stand but no, it's the Annie! Billy Maguire has been among the islands picking up a supply of dugong oil. He heard their requests for fuel on the radio and came along to help. He has two hundred gallons of petrol! The tanks of the Scud are filled, but the lagoon is far too choppy to take off. Then Worrals has an idea: spill the dugong oil. It would calm the water! Chapter XV: Blitzed Billy compliments Worrals on her clever idea but before they can do this, more aircraft approach the island. It's the Mitsubishi bomber and he is back with three dive bombers. They spot the Annie and sink her. Billy is despondent at the loss of his ship but the Annie has the last word: the attack must have breached her tanks for the dugong oil bubbles to the surface, flattening the water. Now is their chance! The heavily overloaded Scud manages to take off and just reaches Darwin in the midst of a storm. Worrals and Frecks spend ten days of leave and return to Britain by ship with the girls they had rescued. Category:Plot summaries